Abstract

The concept of empowerment has been introduced in communication studies, however, it has not been introduced in accounting education research. The authors’ purpose is to introduce the concept of empowerment in accounting education and investigate its relationship with accounting course perceptions, students’ academic performance, and classroom instruction. Previous work has concluded that empowerment is primarily influenced by teacher behaviour. Whereas, the student’s temperament and learning orientation has little impact on empowerment. This study administered a survey questionnaire to 162 students who were studying the first year of a business degree institution in Australia. Observations and interviews were also conducted. Data was analysed using reliability tests, factor analysis, and correlations. The results indicate that, course perceptions and classroom instructions influence student empowerment, but no correlation was found with student’s academic performance.